Forza 4 gets Porsche expansion this May

The expansion pack will add 30 Porsche cars to the game, including 7 previously unseen in the series.

Forza 4 will see the addition of Porsche via an expansion pack this May, Turn 10 has announced. The expansion pack will add 30 Porsche cars to the game, including 7 previously unseen in the series.

Alongside the cars will be 20 new events for World Tour mode, which is reported to add 5 hours of gameplay to the racing sim. The pack will also include 10 new Achievements, worth 250 points.

Turn 10 would not confirm the line-up of, but has released screenshots showing the 2010 Porsche Sport Classic, the 2010 Porsche Boxster S and the 2010 Porsche 911 Sport Classic.

It was announced last year that Forza Motorsport 4 would not feature Porsche cars because of licensing difficulties with Electronic Arts, who own the rights to use Porsche cars in video games.

"We announced before Forza 4 shipped that Porsches weren't going to be in," said director Dan Greenawalt in an interview with VideoGamer.com. "But that doesn't mean we stopped trying, it was basically the time at which we knew that even if we got the agreement signed that day we wouldn't have enough time to make the content to get it into the game - so that was when we made that press release. But we never walked away from the table, EA never walked away from the table, Porsche never walked away from the table. We'd keep talking, trying to find terms, trying to come to a common agreement - everybody wanted to bring Porsche to the fans."

All the Porsche cars featured in the expansion have been recreated in the Forza 4 engine, as opposed to being ported over from Forza 3.

Greenawalt also stressed that EA wasn't looking to outright block the vehicles from being used in the Forza series. "EA wanted to bring Porsche into Forza Motorsport, they were not against it, we just had to find the right terms that gave equity to the license."

"I actually think this is an everybody wins situation. Business is business, and we just had to figure out common terms. At the end of the day, everyone wanted to bring Porsche to the fans. It would be hard for me to get bitter about it because I saw the whole process go down, and I know there was no ill will on anybody's part, it's just that licensing deals can be complex, especially between two companies that both sell games in the same space."

A price for the Forza 4 Porsche expansion was not confirmed. "This is an expansion pack, so it will be more in the expansion pack realm rather than the car pack realm," said Greenawalt.